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Guards cautioned against posing as
Environmental Health Officers
Tamale, July 23, Ghanadot/GNA - Sanitation Guards employed
under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) have
been warned not to pose as Environmental Health Officers (EHOs)
in the discharge of their duties.
Naa Lenrason Demedeme, Director of Environmental Health and
Sanitation Directorate of the Ministry of Local Government,
Rural Development and Environment (MLGRDE) gave the warning
at an orientation workshop for 90 sanitation guards drawn
from seven districts of the Northern Region at Tamale on
Monday.
He told the guards: "You are to assist the EHOs to enforce
sanitary laws and regulations of the assemblies and in the
supervision and monitoring of sanitation services".
The MLGRDE in collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower,
Youth and Employment organised the one-day workshop for the
guards from Savelugu/Nanton West Mamprusi, East Mamprusi,
East Gonja, Tolon/Kumbungu, Bunkpurugu/Yunyoo districts and
the Tamale Metropolis.
The forum was to educate the sanitation guards on their code
of ethics, the socio-economic implications of sanitation and
health, roles and responsibilities of sanitation guards and
the statutory provisions on environmental sanitation.
Naa Demedeme, a facilitator at the workshop, reminded the
sanitation guards that they would be putting themselves into
serious technical and legal problems if they posed as
environmental health officers.
He told them that EHOs were professionally trained and as
such, they were the technical people mandated to undertake
certain duties, while "you as sanitation guards, are
expected to only assist them".
"You should not regard your employment under the NYEP as a
permanent job but as either an opportunity to further your
education or an avenue to gain technical training for better
employment", he said.
He urged the guards to take their work seriously since
environmental sanitation and human health were closely
linked and added that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)
could be undermined by poor sanitation.
Mr Mohammed Amin Adam, Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive,
who opened the workshop told the guards not to be
discouraged in the discharge of their duties even though
they would face a lot of difficulties trying to help improve
sanitation in the communities.
"You are getting out there to fight the hearts and minds of
the people to bring about the needed attitudinal change and
this requires patience and understanding and you have to
prepare yourselves mentally for the task ahead", he said.
He said the government on its part, was mobilising all the
resources needed to ensure a clean and healthy environment
for the development of the country and its people.
The Metropolitan Chief Executive said the Assembly spent
more than two billion cedis quarterly to keep the metropolis
clean and noted that this could have been used for the
development of other infrastructure "if we had maintained a
clean environment".
GNA
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